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The Night Owl Dilema: Higher On Low or Low On High?

ChefE

ChefE

Active Member
Not everyone has cool neighbors, accepting roommates, friends, or family that love loud music in the middle of any given night. If you do....stop reading and go buy them a beer and let them know how special they are to be the top .00000000846527475% HiFi Friendly People.

Meanwhile......anyone who plays music or movies later at night knows the risk. However I've been mulling over what's better for the casual listener who likes it just a little louder and clearer in the time most people are sleeping. The Night Owl Delima is how to get the best sonics around those times without sacrificing auditory quality and destroying good neighbor relations. Keeping the peace.
Is a higher powered receiver/amp driving loudspeakers and keeping the volume down better or is using a low powered amp/receiver driving loudspeakers and turning the volume up better?
Example: Sansui G-33000 and Altec Lansing Model 14 or Smaller Advents - volume knob at #2
Sansui G-3000 and Altec Lansing Model 14 or Smaller Advents- volume knob at #5
Open to all genres of music.

Your thoughts?
 
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SPL is SPL.

If you're putting out (for example) 75dB through Altec 14s it doesn't matter if it's a 1000W amp throttled way back or a 2W amp turned up some; SPL is SPL.

Or, maybe another way to put it is that volume knob position isn't what pisses off the neighbors. What pisses them off is too loud at the wrong time, regardess what the position of the knob may be.
 
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Some speakers tend to sound better at lower volumes than others.

Some loudness controls actually make the music sound better at lower levels.

But, short of moving, headphones might be your best option.
 
For low level listening, I prefer something with outstanding dynamics; thus, I prefer horns for low level listening. OTOH, Magnepans and ESLs also work well because they tend not to couple to the building structure. Obviously, the noise floor is also important to late night listening.
 
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I have a large living room in my house

I can run 400 wpc into my 94 db per watt speakerlab das 7's at 3 am if I want to

my neighbors have never complained

I have asked them if it bothers them they said no
 
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Well, the bass is what travels to the neighbors. Just listen in "audiophile mode" aka no bass.

:)

Depending on your speakers, they will use ony 5 to 10 watts for 90 dB anyways. So the amount of power the amp can do is pretty irrelevant.
 
OP, I suspect you could give us your informed opinion on the two amps in question. If so, what is it?

Regardless, can you really say that the volume control position is the main variable affecting any differences? I'd assume other variables count for much more.

Speakers that don't need cranking to "sing" would be the main one contributing to clarity at low volume. Other component's clarity should not depend on volume knob position, unless poor potentiometers are used for the volume control.

For many people, the main factor will be the amount of ambient noise. My house is about 30 dB of ambient noise at night, which is pretty quiet. Folks with a 40 dB noise floor will need to listen at least 10 dB louder than I do, simply to maintain a similar S/N ratio.
 
I hate listening to headphones, but I also don't like listening to music too quietly. If I really want to listen to music late, I use my headphones. Usually, I just go to bed and save my ears for tomorrow.
 
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markdi said:
I have a large living room in my house

I can run 400 wpc into my 94 db per watt speakerlab das 7's at 3 am if I want to

my neighbors have never complained

I have asked them if it bothers them they said no
Click to expand...


Wow. How can you actually run 400 wpc into anything and not go deaf?
 
I prefer lots of power (even though only a fraction is being used for low-level listening) AND speakers big enough to fill the room w/o having to crank them. My L150A's are probably the best I have for that, and the ADS L1230's a close second. I can hear detail & adequate bass at pretty low output levels with both of those systems.

The one thing that absolutely does not work well for that - in my house anyway - is my a/d/s/ HT12ps powered sub in my A/V system downstairs. Every time that wakes up a little on a bass note, it propagates immediately & with very little attenuation into the master bedroom which is right overhead.

John
 
If I had to choose,I'd probably go with a higher wpc amp & matching speakers played at a lower volume setting vs. a lower wpc amp & matching speakers played at a higher volume setting. But that said there is a ton of middle ground on a deal like this,and as was stated previously some things can be real game changers to tip the scales in favor of either set-up.

A variable loudness control is one of those game changers,I absolutely love that feature on my current LR system's Kenwood Basic C1 preamp.

I'm a diehard night-owl,and that's pretty much the only way that LR system gets played (low volume) nowadays,as I live with others right now,and that variable loudness control really lets me get that "weighty" full sound at lower volumes.

This system is comprised of that Kenwood Basic C1 preamp I mentioned,an Adcom GFA-5200 amp (50wpc),a Vector Research VQ-115 EQ,and some JBL LX-44 speakers,and the low volume listening with this system has been extremely enjoyable for me,the soundstage and imaging are superb,and it does'nt really matter what genre of music either,everytime I listen to this system it never fails to impress me,and I attribute a large part of that systems overall success to the variable loudness control on that preamp,along with the JBL LX-44 speakers abillity to translate the material accurately.

Now I'm sure comparable results could be had from systems with more wpc -or- less wpc,so as was mentioned SPL is SPL for the most part,but this combo seems to really excel at low volume listening as it seems to hit the "sweet spot" between low wpc & high wpc and big speakers & small speakers.

So like many things audio related,it's going to depend on the given system's overall strengths and weaknesses.

HTH

Bret P.
 
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